Grieving mother of slain Brockton man searches for answers

Authorities have charged Tyron Coney, 23, of 20 Haverhill St., Brockton, with manslaughter in the death of David A. Smith, who was brutally stabbed to death in downtown Brockton over the weekend.

Staff Reporter

BROCKTON – Kathie Smith heard the knock on her door about 3 a.m. Sunday. She thought it was her 22-year-old son, David, coming home late from a night out with his brother.

Instead, it was a state trooper, who told her David didn’t make it through the night at a local hospital, after he was stabbed on North Main Street in downtown Brockton.

Hours later on Sunday, Smith went to a local funeral home, and picked out a casket for her son’s funeral.

“I don’t know what happened. I don’t know. I don’t know,” Smith, 56, said while sobbing in her Brockton living room on Sunday afternoon.

She was among people looking for answers on Sunday, after authorities said David A. Smith, 22, was fatally stabbed on North Main Street late Saturday night.

Authorities have charged Tyron Coney, 23, of 20 Haverhill St., Brockton, with manslaughter in the death of Smith, Assistant District Attorney Russ Eonas said Sunday. Coney was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday in Brockton District Court.

The killing is the eighth in Brockton so far this year. The eighth of the 13 murders last year did not occur until August.

The weekend slaying occurred steps from Perkins Park and a church on North Main Street, and near MainSpring House, a homeless shelter.

Investigators were seen processing the crime scene Sunday afternoon. Yellow chalk marked several blood stains along the pavement and sidewalks on North Main Street.

Kathie Smith went to North Main Street Sunday afternoon, and saw her son’s blood on the pavement at the corner of North Main and Court streets.

“He must have been running for his life. There’s blood all the way down (the street). Oh, oh,” she said, while sobbing and wailing in her home.

Witnesses said David Smith was brutally attacked and stabbed on North Main Street in front of Perkins Park. A bleeding Smith then crossed the street and collapsed at the front steps of the Brockton Community Access building at North Main and Court streets, witnesses said.

Some people who said they knew “D.J.” – a nickname Smith went by – gathered at a makeshift memorial for him at the corner of North Main and Court streets. Some bent down and prayed openly and made a sign of the Cross; others lit religious candles and signed a white fabric bearing the letters “D.J.” and “R.I.P.”

Donna Elliott poured her Monster energy drink onto the sidewalk to help wash Smith’s blood off of the pavement.

Elliott, who volunteers with the Guardian Angels group working to stem violence in the city, said she and several other Guardian Angels were walking through downtown streets Saturday night. The group came upon police and other emergency responders at the stabbing scene, she said.

“They need to step up the police patrols,” said Elliott, 35, of Brockton. “Have somebody there. Put up more cameras. Have more places for people to go to. Do something. We try to do what we can do.”

Police responded to North Main and Court streets about 11 p.m. Saturday after receiving a report of a person stabbed, said Assistant District Attorney Russ Eonas.

Police found the 22-year-old Smith wounded after being stabbed. Eonas would not say Sunday where Smith had been stabbed or how many stab wounds he sustained. He was later pronounced dead at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital.

Inside her living room, with a photograph of Jesus on a nearby wall, Kathie Smith said her son, the eldest of two children, was a religious man who grew up in the Nazarene church.

“He loved the Lord,” she cried. “He didn’t act it. He just lived it. He was a good kid. He was a loving heart... He would help anybody.”

Her son grew up on Cape Cod and attended the Milton Hershey School in Pennsylvania, a free, private school for children from low-income families with social need. He also attended school in Foxboro before moving to Brockton about a year ago, she said.

She said her son, who lived with her, was a “neat freak” who loved fishing, baseball and sports, and the beach.

Her son had battled alcoholism in the past, she said. He worked as a landscaper and had planned to attend Massasoit Community College.

She last saw her son about 6 p.m. Saturday, hours before he was killed.

She looked at his empty room Sunday afternoon, saying she would miss him greatly.

“Nobody deserves to die like that, you know? Nobody,” she cried.

Maria Papadopoulos may be reached at mpapa@enterprisenews.com or follow on Twitter @MariaP_ENT.